The Doors Live At The Bowl ‘68Artist/Band: The DoorsLabel/Studio: Eagle Rock EntertainmentReleased: October 23, 2012Reviewed: October 22, 2012

If you’re into classic rock, then who doesn’t appreciate – if not love – The Doors and their contribution to the soundtrack of our youth? Their music is still burned into our minds and their live performances are the stuff of legend. To that point, The Doors supplied plenty of post-Independence Day fireworks on July 5, 1968 when the legendary quartet played the Hollywood Bowl, a concert that is considered to be the band’s finest on film. For the first time, the film from the historic performance has been painstakingly restored using the original camera negatives and the audio has been remixed and mastered from original multi-tracks by the group’s engineer Bruce Botnick. This new restoration offers a stunning visual upgrade from earlier versions and will give fans the closest experience to being there live alongside Jim Morrison, John Densmore, Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, who opined, “You can hear it as if you were at the Hollywood Bowl, on stage with us.”

LIVE AT THE BOWL ’68 will include three previously unreleased tracks from the performance. Technical issues with the recording of “Hello, I Love You,” “The WASP (Texas Radio And The Big Beat),” and “Spanish Caravan” prevented them from being released in the past. Now, through meticulous restoration of the audio, all three will be included, marking the first time the concert has been available in its entirety.

The DVD, Blu-Ray and digital video each feature a 16x9 high-definition digital transfer with both a stereo and 5.1 audio soundtrack as well as over an hour of bonus material. Included in the additional content are Echoes From The Bowl, The Doors’ route to the Hollywood Bowl; You Had To Be There, memories of The Doors’ performance at the Bowl; Reworking The Doors, an in-depth look at how the film was restored; and three bonus performances: Wild Child from The Smothers Brothers Show in 1968, Light My Fire from The Jonathan Winters Show in December 1967 and a version of Van Morrison’s Gloria with specially created visuals.

Jeff Jampol, Doors manager and producer of the film said “The Doors’ live performances were a shamanistic journey into dark rock and roll psychedelic theater – a swirling mixture of rock ‘n’ roll heat, poetry, danger, drama and unbridled musical virtuosity. Captured at the height of The Doors’ magical powers, in one of the world’s greatest venues, this brand new restoration, edit and mix, corny as it may sound, made me fall in love a hundred times, all over again.”

Geoff Kempin, executive producer for Eagle Rock said “The Doors were one of THE most incredible live bands ever – we wanted to apply the top technology so that everyone can fully appreciate the phenomenon of The Doors captured at their height on 5 July 1968”.

In addition to Doors fans, music and pop culture historians will definitely want to own their own copy of this masterful restoration of this historic performance by one of rock’s iconic bands: The Doors